Wafer Scale On-Axis Homoepitaxial Growth of 4H-SiC(0001) for High-Power Devices: Influence of Different Gas Phase Chemistries and Growth Rate Limitations

• On-axis homoepitaxy of 4H-SiC has the advantage of producing epilayers that are free of basal plane dislocations. Such layers can be highly beneficial for SiC-based high-power bipolar electronic devices which otherwise suffer from bipolar degradation phenomena related to basal plane dislocations in epilayers. In this study, we have developed on-axis homoepitaxy on the Si-face of 100 mm diameter 4H-SiC wafers with only 4H polytype in the epilayer excluding the edges of the wafer. We have also compared standard and chloride-based growth, the influence of different ambient conditions on surface preparation of the substrate, the influence of the histories of different growth cells, and the geometry of the susceptors regarding 4H-polytype stability in the epilayer. Substrate surface preparation, growth temperature, C/Si ratio, and Si/H ratio are found to be the most influential parameters to achieve homoepitaxy. On-axis homoepitaxial growth rate is limited to a very low value of amp;lt;10 mu m/h. We have performed a systematic study to understand the influence of different growth parameters and gas phase chemistries to determine whether on-axis growth rate can be enhanced and, if not, what the limiting factors are. Our experimental evidence suggests that the on-axis growth rate is not limited by the gas phase chemistry or diffusion, but it is limited by the surface kinetics. A significantly low step density on on-axis substrates lowers the surface reaction rates and limits the growth rate to lower values. It may not be possible to further improve the growth rate even with chloride-based growth using epitaxial growth conditions.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Annan kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Other Chemistry Topics (hsv//eng)

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ref (subject category)

art (subject category)